


¿Cómo me llamo?

by bauhausModernism



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Fluff, M/M, too long for a drabble too short for a proper story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 22:24:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bauhausModernism/pseuds/bauhausModernism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Carlos had been in Night Vale for just under a year and a half when it occured to him that, since his arrival in the small desert town, he hadn't seen or heard anyone call him by his full name."</p><p>aimless fluffy drabble for a friend of mine</p>
            </blockquote>





	¿Cómo me llamo?

**Author's Note:**

> wow i haven't written anything in a loooong time wowow. me and an irl friend of mine were talking about wtnv headcanons and i couldn't get this idea out of my head so i jotted it down and my friend wanted a copy so i figured i'd just post it here haha.
> 
> i hope this doesn't suck too bad, it's my first time writing anything for night vale,,,,

Carlos had been in Night Vale for just under a year and a half when it occured to him that, since his arrival in the small desert town, he hadn't seen or heard anyone call him by his full name. In fact, he couldn't even remember anyone in the town even asking him for his last name; he'd never had to fill out any sort of residency forms and his lab had simply been vacant and waiting for him when he'd arrived, as though the City Council had been anticipating his arrival for a long while. When he'd first entered Night Vale city limits, his wallet had also mysteriously vanished in a small cloud of softly glowing violet smoke and he had still not been issued, nor even asked for, any kind of personal identification; after a while, he'd just assumed that, what with all of the constant surveillance on the part of the Sherriff's Secret Police, that the citizens of Night Vale simply didn't have need of IDs. It certainly didn't surprise Carlos; this development had been one of the easier things to get used to in Night Vale.

 

He had briefly considered the possibility that the people in Night Vale simply didn't have last names, and used titles in their place, like Old Woman Josie and Intern Dana (or her double). This hypothesis had held Carlos' mind for all of five minutes pefore he remembered, pressing a palm to his forehead with a breath of " _I'm an idiot_ " on his tongue, that plenty of people in Night Vale _did_ have surnames; there was John Peters (you know, the farmer) and _Cecil Baldwin_ , who Carlos was especially annoyed with himself for forgetting.

 

Still, though, Carlos couldn't think of and feasible explanations (or even any unfeasible ones) as to why no one in Night Vale had ever addressed him by his surname; no one had even seemed to acknowledge that he _had_ one in the first place. They all just called him "Carlos the scientist;" even Cecil had never said his full name.

 

Carlos' curiosity ended up getting the better of him near the tail end of his and Cecil's sixth date, as thoughts about everything and nothing at all ran through his mind while they laid hand-in-hand on the hood of the radio host's car, bathed in the soft glow of the lights above the Arby's and Cecil's lazily shifting tattoos. The scientist had turned slightly, resting his cheek against the windshield as he had softly asked, "Cecil?"

 

"Yes, my Carlos?" Cecil replied with a lazy smile as he shifted to face him.

 

"I've just... been wondering..." Carlos started, pressing his lips into a thin line as he briefly considered the right words to say, "well... do you know what my full name is?"

 

Cecil had just quirked an eyebrow at him and broke into a lopsided grin in that familiar expression that told Carlos that he had just failed to grasp some kind of basic concept. "Of course I know your full name, Mr. Carlos the Scientist! Why would you ask me that all of a sudden?" he replied with a hint of laughter breaking the smooth flow of his voice.

 

With a short chuckle and a shake of his head, Carlos shrugged and replied, "I don't know. Just curious, I suppose."

 

"For such an intelligent and competent scientist, you ask such simple questions sometimes," Cecil remarked, turning his eyes to the aky again with a small squeeze of Carlos' hand in his.

 

Carlos just shrugged again and looked back to the glowing lights above them, giving Cecil's hand a matching squeeze.

 

"Oh, you know, I'm just constantly curious about everything. It's the third thing a scientist is," Carlos told the bright night sky that neither of them were officially allowed to be looking at. Offhandedly, he decided not to tell Cecil what his actual last name was. Somehow, it didn't seem like it mattered anymore, like so many other things that he had left behind the border of Night Vale and the real world.


End file.
